HR tech vendors make tools designed to improve a company's employee experience. So, it makes sense that a handful should appear on Glassdoor's Best Places to Work list, right?

Several HR vendors made Glassdoor's Best Paces to Work list. Surprised? Don't be. These are companies that preach the benefits of employee satisfaction and even sell tools designed to improve employee experience.

Out of all the large businesses ranked in the top 100 of Glassdoor's Best Places to Work list, Ultimate Software Group Inc., a human capital management (HCM) software vendor, ranked the highest, at No. 18 overall.

Among HR tech firms, the second-place finisher, at No. 20, was Paylocity Corp., a payroll and HCM tools software vendor. Other HR tech companies that cracked the top 100 include the following:

SAP landed at No. 27.

Kronos Inc. came in at No. 44.

Paycom Software Inc. was No. 62.

Deloitte, which publishes research and surveys on HR best practices, was ranked at No. 80.

Firms that are highly desired employers

Whether Glassdoor's Best Places to Work list, which is based on anonymous employee reviews from the site, is accurate or fair is a matter for debate. But it will be hard to quarrel with much of Glassdoor's thinking.

The list is chock-full of organizations long considered to be desirable employers for their pay, benefits, mission and global impact. These include Facebook, Google, Salesforce, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the National Institutes of Health, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Apple and many others.

Sarah Stoddard, a Glassdoor community expert, said in an email that its list "acts as an indicator that more employers -- and specifically HR departments -- around the country are strengthening their investment in employee engagement and satisfaction programs."

To make the Best Places to Work list, Glassdoor considers a company's mission-driven culture, competitive compensation and transparent senior leadership. Companies that rank highest also offer career mobility and strong work-life balance, Stoddard said. These priorities may be driven by the HR teams, which measure and identify employee experience, she said.

Glassdoor's top 10 best places to work

Glassdoor's top 10 best places to work is something akin to an Ivy League ranking. Here's a closer look at the breakdown:

The firms that you would expect to be there -- mostly tech -- are there: LinkedIn is sixth, Facebook is seventh and Google is eighth.

Also, as expected, the top-tier management consulting firms are in the top 10: Bain & Company is in first place, and Boston Consulting Group is fifth.

No surprise: Southwest Airlines and its entertaining flight attendants are at No. 10.

More tech firms: Zoom Video Communications is in second place, and Procore Technologies, a construction management software firm, held the fourth spot.

Lululemon Athletica, a retailer based in Canada, ranked ninth.

A notable exception: In-N-Out Burger, a top 10 place to work in six out of the last seven years, captured third place. It's the fast-food company's highest ranking.

Consolation prize for U.S. firms not on list

For U.S. employers that didn't make Glassdoor's Best Places to Work list, there is a consolation prize, according to new survey data by Qualtrics, a maker of customer and employee experience software that was acquired by SAP last month.

U.S. companies are doing a better job than firms located in other countries at creating workplaces that "have the most satisfied workers," Qualtrics reported.

In a global survey of 6,000 workers, Qualtrics found 70% of U.S. workers are satisfied with their jobs. The countries surveyed, by order of satisfaction ranking, were Australia, Germany, U.K., New Zealand, France, Malaysia and Singapore, which was at the bottom of the list, at 50%.

In the U.S., the survey found 13% of workers say they are likely to quit their jobs, which was the lowest of all the countries surveyed. The highest countries surveyed, at 20%, were Malaysia, Singapore and the U.K.

About 30% of the U.S. workers in this survey said they were stressed. That was the highest reported level, and that percentage was shared by the U.K., France and Australia. But stress isn't always a bad thing.

"A certain level of stress is actually beneficial," said Mike Maughan, head of global insights at Qualtrics. "It can go overboard and become crippling stress, but stress can be motivational -- stress can be a good thing."

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